Category Archives: Napa Valley

Viader

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Viader Winery and Vineyards

Viader Winery and Vineyards

1120 Deer Park Road, Deer Park, CA 94576

Website: http://viader.com/index.html

After visiting Viader Winery (pronounced vee-a-dare), I rate it in my top 5 places in Napa Valley that I would recommend to anyone. This place is superb for its location on Howell Mountain and its delicious wines. I came upon the winery when I decided that I was going to make a trek to Howell Mountain for one of my Napa visits. Every time I had tried a Cabernet Sauvignon with Howell Mountain on the label I really loved it. So, I broke out my Napa Valley map and looked up a few places on the mountain. Viader was the first place we selected to stop at. Little did my husband and I know that we would find such a lovely winery.

This winery is owned by Delia Viader who is a famed woman winemaker in Napa Valley. She was born in Argentina and spent much of her younger years in Europe since her father was a Diplomat. She has a very impressive educational background with a doctorate in Philosophy from the Sorbonne University in Paris and advanced business studies at MIT, UC Berkeley, and UC Davis. While studying in California she realized the potential of making wine in Napa Valley and acquired the current property on Howell Mountain. She founded the winery in 1986 and runs the winery with her children Alan and Janet. Delia had a vision to create Bordeaux style wines on Howell Mountain. The planting of her vineyards met with some controversy at first as she cut down trees and put in vines running up and down the mountain so that they follow the path of the afternoon sun, emulating what is done in France. This had never been done in Napa before, but it worked and produced fruit of exceptional quality.

Viader Tasting Room

Viader Tasting Room

Tastings at this winery are by appointment only. After driving up the mountain a-ways, we arrived at a metal gate and had to ring the intercom for someone to open the gate for us. Once the gate opened, we drove up the hill surrounded by trees on both sides. The winery is built of stone sitting in the middle of a clearing of trees. It’s a very peaceful setting. There are walking paths through the trees all around the property. We followed the tiled pathway to the large wooden entrance door. Our host Pablo, who is a native of Argentina and recently moved to Napa, greeted us inside the spacious tasting room. The tasting room is very spacious but elegant with high wood-beamed ceilings, stone columns, a few tables with stools, and a tasting bar on the right hand side. Opposite the entrance were large windows and glass doors leading out to a terrace with one of most gorgeous views I have seen. Pablo escorted us outside to a table set up for our tasting. We took a seat looking out at the vineyards running down the mountain with a lake below. There was one other group of three at a table to our right. The setting made me wish that I could live there. Then we had the wines and they were great! With a focus on Bordeaux style blends, probably the winery’s most notable wine is the “Viader”. They also produce a wine called “V” that focuses primarily on Petit Verdot, Viader Syrah, Viader Black Label that includes Malbec, and the DARE series of wines. My personal favorite was the DARE Cabernet Franc. Pablo was a very gracious and fun host sharing a lot of information with us about Delia and the winery. We felt at ease and not rushed throughout our tasting.

As we were leaving we walked around a bit and went by the vineyard to snap some postcard worthy pictures. I would without a doubt recommend this winery to friends and family. However, I feel that I need to give a disclaimer that the tasting and wines are expensive. I’m generally a bit critical of high priced wines, but I do feel the price here is in line with the quality. If you are willing to splurge on an experience, this is one I would encourage you to consider.

Wine tasting on the back deck at Viader on Howell Mountain

Wine tasting on the back deck at Viader on Howell Mountain

Cuvaison

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Cuvaison Carneros Tasting Room

Cuvaison Carneros Tasting Room

1221 Duhig Rd, Napa, CA 94559

Website: http://www.cuvaison.com/

Cuvaison Estate was founded in Calistoga in 1969 by two engineers from the Silicon Valley. In 1979, the Schmidheiny family from Switzerland acquired Cuvaison along with 400 acres of undeveloped land in Carneros. There they built a contemporary tasting room and barrel room.

My visit to the Carneros Tasting Room was a spur of the moment decision. My husband and I were originally intending to grab some lunch at Boonfly Café off of route 121, but they had a long wait and we didn’t want to cut into our wine tasting time too much. Our next idea was to stop in at Domaine Carneros up the street for a light snack, but they were even busier than the restaurant. As we headed out of the parking lot trying to figure out where to go next, we saw the sign for Cuvaison with their phone number to call to make an appointment. My husband picked up his cell phone and explained to the woman who answered that we were sitting at the end of their driveway and would like to come in for a tasting if they had an opening. Lucky for us they graciously welcomed us up to the winery.

Private tasting area inside Cuvaison Tasting Room

Private tasting area inside Cuvaison Tasting Room

The outside structure of the Carneros Tasting Room is rather modest compared to the neighboring chateau of Domaine Carneros. However, I was surprised by the sleek, contemporary interior. When we walked in, to our left was a lounge area with sofas and to the right was the main tasting area.

One of the unique features of this winery is that all of the tastings are seated. A hostess greeted us at the door and confirmed our reservation. She then walked us over to one of the tables next to the bar, handed us a tasting menu and explained the two different options available. For each wine that we sampled our hostess told us about the wine and then gave us all the time that we wanted to savor it and enjoy ourselves. The views from the tasting room are magnificent. Three of the four walls are made of windows from ceiling to floor and look out over rolling fields of vines. There is also an outdoor terrace with tables. All of the wines I tried were enjoyable. My only regret is that we visited in February and the vines weren’t in bloom. I can imagine how spectacular the view is when the vines are lush and green.

An aspect of this winery that I really like is that they are environmentally conscious. The Carneros production facility is powered by more than 1,400 solar panels. They practice sustainable winemaking practices and are continuously looking for ways to reduce their impact on our environment. For example, they have partnered with a recycling company to recycle corks and turn them into self-sustaining products. We also noticed on the way out that they had a charging station for electric cars in their parking area.

The owners of this winery also purchased Brandlin Vineyards on Mount Veeder in 1998, which focuses on Cabernet Sauvignon and Zinfandel. An added bonus to visiting this tasting room is getting sample the Brandlin wines as part of the tasting flight.

Looking out on the vineyards from Cuvaison Tasting Room in February

Looking out on the vineyards from Cuvaison Tasting Room in February

 

Vermeil Wines Napa Tasting Room

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Entrance to Vermeil Tasting Room in downtown Napa

Entrance to Vermeil Tasting Room in downtown Napa

1018 1st St, Napa, CA 94559

Website: http://vermeilwines.com/

Wine pros will often talk about how wine preference is connected to the experience individuals associate with it. I can attest to that. I will always remember Vermeil Tasting Room in downtown Napa and the special experience I shared with my husband, sister, and sister’s friend Jen. We visited on February 1, 2015. The significance of that date is it was Super Bowl Sunday and the New England Patriots were playing the Seattle Seahawks. When I booked our trip I did not realize it was Super Bowl weekend. My husband is a big New England Patriots fan. We made a compromise – he would go along with the trip provided that we could watch the Super Bowl. I searched around online for pubs or other places that would be showing the game and ran across Vermeil Wines. This winery is owned by former NFL football coach Dick Vermeil. Every year they broadcast the game on the screen TVs in their tasting room. This was perfect! My husband could watch the game and I could sample the wine.

Memorabilia inside Vermeil's tasting room

Memorabilia inside Vermeil’s tasting room

Dick Vermeil grew up in Calistoga and started making a name for himself as a quarterback in high school. He went on to have a very successful career as a college coach for UCLA and an NFL coach winning a Super Bowl with the St. Louis Rams. Dick then had a fourteen-year career as a sportscaster for CBS and ABC. Upon retiring from football and sports casting, Dick returned to his roots in Calistoga to start up a winery.

This winery has two tasting rooms, one in Calistoga and the other in downtown Napa. We spent 3 hours sitting in the tasting room in downtown Napa watching Super Bowl 2015. It was an ideal setting for us. The tasting room is decorated with football paraphernalia. There were pictures of Dick Vermeil on the wall in various stages of his career and a replica Vince Lombardi trophy. The tasting room was divided into two areas. The main area has the tasting bar and a small seating area between the tasting bar and front windows with a coffee table and comfy chairs situated in front of a TV. This is the spot we claimed. There was a separate room off of the main area with some couches, a table, and another TV. Our hostess was very accommodating. We did a tasting and pairing with some small bites. The atmosphere was very casual and comfortable. It was the next best thing to being home with some friends enjoying the game. Passersby would stop in occasionally to check the score. The icing on the cake of the whole experience was the Patriot’s pulling off an incredible win in the last seconds of the game.

The tasting bar at Vermail

The tasting bar at Vermail

Although in this particular instance we sought out this place because we wanted to watch the game more so than to try the wines, I did appreciate the tasting room and the wines. We really enjoyed their Zinfandels and Dutton Ranch Chardonnay. The tasting room is a couple of blocks away from the Oxbox Market where you can do some shopping and try lots of different foods. The area is also surrounded by lots pf popular restaurants. This tasting room has a nice, laid back atmosphere and we appreciated the hospitality over the course of a few hours that we were there.